Cob Jockey

What's Disco been up to?

Well. GROWING.

This was what he looked like on March 15:

Then I swear, as soon as the grass greened up in early April, he went from baby horse shaped to adult horse shaped overnight, fast enough that even those of us who see him every day noticed it:

May 5. Yes, he really does have that much hair on BOTH sides of his neck, lord help me

Excuse me, what, where did my baby go?!

May 14. PC: Lisa

He's not just filling out, though, he's also putting that energy into growing up. Taller, that is. Lisa came out to see him on May 14th, and we sticked him at 13.2hh! For reference, Connor was 13.3hh and change when I got him at age 5, and finished at 14.1hh or 143cm. Also, this means he's grown an entire hand since we last sticked him in January or February.

May 5

Disco is almost certainly going to finish over pony, which is not surprising since his dad is pushing 15hh. It's also perfectly fine for the breed - there's no upper limit for height on D's.

His first time seeing the top half of the door open in the spring. I opened his door two days earlier than the other horses just in case I came out one morning to find an escaped Disco in the barnyard, lol. He was good though.

Even with all that growing though, he has yet to go through a stage awkward enough that I wouldn't show him. He's gotten a touch butt high occasionally, but nothing wild.

May 14

It's been a wild ride watching his body grow and change since I brought him home just over six months ago!

On Saturday I went over to Lisa's to see Disco and help bathe some ponies before the Welsh Central Regional this weekend.

Athanasia (right) and Anna Rose (left) getting a spa day

If I wasn't already in love with cute little baby Disco, cute adolescent Disco totally sealed the deal. In all, I was there for three baby baths, so I got a good feel for how they're all doing with haltering in the field, leading out of the field, standing still for extended periods of time while on a lead, getting a bath, and getting their manes tamed.

Look at that neck, man!

With Disco, I was able to walk straight up to him in the herd, halter him, and lead him out almost as easily as if he was an adult horse. Lisa's helper Hayley joked (paraphrased) "Oh yeah he was so easy, I think he was born halter broken." Every once in a while I had to put a little pressure on the line and wait for him to take a step to release it, but not often.

Baby Anna Rose looking like a supermodel with her hair and makeup crew, lol

Then for bath time, I thought I was prepared from the videos for how much this horse loves water, but seeing it in person is a whole other thing. I should've named him Castleberrys Seahorse. As soon as the hose came out, he was like "Pick me, pick me!"

"Yessssssssssss" - Disco, probably

He stood like a rock as long as he was getting bathed, unless he was moving around to put his face in the stream, lol. Hayley even "pressure washed" his hind socks with the stream nozzle and he didn't care.

Gimme gimme gimme

Once his bath was over and he was standing around waiting on mom's bath to get finished, he was a little less inclined to stand still, but he wasn't rude about it. We were just approaching the limit of his baby horse patience.

After his bath, he got his mane banded so it will hopefully all lay to one side at the show. And I gotta be honest, he already has quite the neck on him for being not quite six months old. He at least has a shot at pinning very well at the show this weekend - not much baby horse awkward going on here yet.

Just chilling on a loose lead. Hopefully he's this good for braiding!

With the bands in, you can start to get a glimmer of what it'll look like braided in a few years.

The first weanings start to happen this week, so it really could be any time that he comes home, and I am definitely feeling a lot better about bringing him home to the co-op knowing he's already this much of a solid citizen.

Gimme that water!

Well, we know he's not afraid of water! 😂 Stay cool out there everyone, and have a good weekend!

Sitting in Lisa's living room with Erika after Pony Cup, we both flipped through the many photo albums she keeps out on her side table of all the ponies she's bred over the years. I've seen them all before, but one photo caught my eye in a new way:

Erika's Gavin on the left and Connor on the right

"Oh my gosh it's Gav and Connor together!" I said. Gavin, who's younger than Connor, looks sweet and innocent while Connor looks like he's about to start playing, which is funny because as adults Connor is the sweet one and Gav is the mischievous one.

And of course a baby Connor post isn't complete without my favorite baby picture of him ever:

Someday I'll get this scanned to where it doesn't wash out quite as much, but it's still cute.

Happy Friday, everyone!

Oh my goodness. You guys. Disco's personality is just larger than life.

Asking Olivia if her baby can come out and play and getting summarily rejected, lol

If something is going on, he's involved. If someone is up to no good, he's involved.

Honestly,  I should have named him Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot or Prongs. "I solemnly swear that I am up to no good."

That said, he's not completely incorrigible.

He's now halter broken and walks and trots in hand, although he was VERY indignant about the idea that anyone would even consider putting a THING on HIS HEAD! I wish I could share the audio from this, but he was walking around making dinosaur noises and chasing Lisa to see if she would take it off his head.

He's also the dog's best play buddy this year. The dog loves to play with the babies every year but not all of them will take her up on it.

And he has, uh, not shown a need for speed, lol. Maybe it'll come. 

His race report would say "Failed to close, faded"

It's so much fun to watch him grow up!

I know, I have tests to write about. But the world needs a Disco update!

All photos in this post courtesy of Lisa

Mostly, he's just hanging out living his best baby horse life. He is developing into quite the character - H, who also showed a Castleberry pony at Waterloo and lives 20 minutes from Lisa, said he's an independent man and nobody can tell him what to do. I wanted spicy and confident in my next one, so I'm not at all disappointed about that.

He's going through his foal shed right now, and it's starting to look like my days of showing a "Haflinger" are numbered! It's still too early to say for sure, but it's looking like he may end up a darker liver chestnut like Connor and Dyma Hi's (Disco's dam) full brother Cadence:

Yeah I'll take any excuse to share this picture again

Clearly not a Haflinger

Color genetics are fascinating. Of all the full siblings Connor has, none of them are the same shades of copper penny chestnut with almost-white flaxen mane and tail that he is. Comrade is a browner chestnut than Connor with a darker flaxen mane and tail, Dyma Hi and Delight are both solid red chestnuts with no flaxen, and Cadence and (I think, it's been a while) Tristan are both dark liver chestnuts with slightly lighter manes and tails. I believe there's one more full sibling, but I've never met her.

Castleberrys Dilemma - such a great name!

And Lisa does see the first lighter colored strands starting to come into his curly mane, although I'll admit, I can't see it in the photos, but I trust her!

Naturally falling onto the correct side already, good job little buddy!

Outside of that, Disco seems to be putting all of his energy into growing his butt, which I am not disappointed about. Can't wait to see that booty sit in a collected canter someday!

In my lesson two weeks ago, we had a bit of a coming-to-Jesus about...turning. Yes, my almost-third horse is still working on turning, lol. Connor had started out the lesson just blah - not wanting to give me any part of his body - and GP trainer asked me to take my inside hand to the inside and ask his body to follow his nose around a circle with very direct aids, like a baby horse.

Did someone say 'baby horse'? Disco is the megachonk on the right, lol

Connor responded by, well, not responding for a couple seconds, then turning his nose to the inside while blowing through my outside aids to make the circle bigger with his body while also falling onto the inside fore, plowing onto his forehand and speeding up.

"He's making this way too complicated. You have too much to manage, he needs to become simpler to ride. You ask him to turn, he should turn, you shouldn't have to manage all of his body parts all the time," - GP trainer (who, sidenote, rode 4-2, 4-3, 4-3 again and the FEI 7 Y/O Prelim and FEI 7 Y/O Final tests on her young horse last weekend and scored over 70% on 4 out of 5 tests! And her only score under 70% was a 68%. Scores aren't everything in a coach, but it's still great to see that USDF judges think she's going in the right direction.)

We spent the rest of that lesson refining that turning response, and toward the end, I came to realize that the point of the turning exercise wasn't turning, it was getting him to accept weight on his hindquarters and activate the inside hind. "So...this is the same fundamental problem we have in ToH only on trot circles?" "Yes!" she said, clearly excited that I puzzled that out on my own.

H, pictured, will also be competing at Waterloo later this month with her 1/2 Welsh 1/2 WB Castleberry mare! Disco is again on the right.

But it wasn't until I was working on this on my own later that I realized what the true problem is: me. If I engaged my core a la Mary Wanless and shifted my own weight back in the saddle, suddenly he also shifted his weight back and almost all of his evasions went away.

So...my horse is dumping onto his forehand and refusing to shift his weight back because...my body is putting him onto his forehand and making it hard for him to shift his weight back. Seems so obvious when you put it like that...

Connor to Jen: duh lady

I've continued to explore this, and it's making a huge difference in my rides, especially in movements where I'm like "I know I'm asking correctly, why is this hard for him?" If my body isn't tipping forward, suddenly the movements are a lot more effortless for him, like I've removed a roadblock.

This feels like a real Second Level line in the sand all of a sudden. A lot of what I'm asking him to do in Second requires him to shift his weight back, and the way I'm sitting is either not helping him or worse, actively working against him. It's the first time that anything has felt impossible when I'm sitting poorly and possible when I'm sitting well.

This also might be the first moment where riding in a jump saddle is actively making it harder for me...ugh...

Lisa's breeding mentor, who was consistently in the top 10 of USEF jumper breeders for several years in the last decade, gave her the opportunity to acquire a couple of nice Belgian Warmblood broodmares last year. One of those mares is Olivia B, by Arko III.

It takes a village to get movement videos of these babies sometimes, lol

Olivia B was bred to Castleberrys Ffafr ap Cuhlwch last year for a 2021 baby, who is just something else.

I would say he is comfortable shifting his weight over his hind end, yes.

He turned out a lot more delicate and graceful than I think any of us anticipated. "Casually athletic" is a good descriptor for him. He's so agile and light on his feet, and I haven't seen him get fussed over anything yet.

Mary is just absolutely in love with him. She kept going on about his hip and depth of stifle and how he's going to be able to jump the moon. She's not quite ready to get a horse of her own yet, but she's thrilled that Olivia is only 7 and has many good baby producing years ahead of her yet.

He's spoken for but unnamed as of yet. His name needs to start with an 'O' like his mom's, and suggestions are welcome! O names are hard, and if we don't use them on him, we may use them on Olivia babies in the future.

Happy Friday, everyone!

On Saturday, Mary, Annie and I went to visit Disco and his gang.

It was the first time I'd seen him in person since he was a week old, and he's now just over 3 weeks old. He's changed a lot!

1 week old

Just over 3 weeks old

We had a blast. We spent a couple of hours in the big field playing with the four older babies. The three younger ones are still not being turned out with the group yet, but all 7 are safely on the ground now.

They are so itchy, lol

Annie started out a little shy, but she really seemed to appreciate being around "Annie-sized ponies". Lisa encouraged her to hold Annie over their backs like she was "riding" (it's good for them to get used to a person above their heads when they're this little!) and Annie was quickly asking to ride every single horse in the field, haha

Annie riding Castleberrys Rumor, the 1/2 WB 1/2 Welsh Cob filly

Annie riding Disco! She's going to tease me someday that she rode my pony before I did.

Annie riding Castleberrys Athanasia

Mary and I agree this is our new favorite photo of us ever. Annie's on Disco and Rumor, who LOVES people, is the one photobombing in the background

Lisa pulling out all the stops to help me get a current conformation photo of Disco. He's finally unfolded and filled out to where I can see what he's going to be like as an adult, and I'm SO happy with him.

His mane continues to be curly

This Belgian Warmblood/Welsh Cob colt has seriously stolen Mary's heart. She says he's going to be able to jump a house, or maybe the moon, and he's so casually athletic and graceful. He's truly going to be something.

Disco mid-roll, lol

Disco dreaming

The Queen, Aeres' mom, Castleberrys Athanasia

Anytime Mary put Annie down, the babies would come over to investigate

Rumor, the other WB/Cob filly, loves people so much. If you try to leave her, she'll follow you all the way across the field away from the herd to stay with you as long as possible.

This...is how many baby photos turn out, lol.

Castleberrys Anna Rose

Picture perfect day

That wasn't the only reason we visited though. I had one more thing I had to accomplish that day...